Perspectives on narrative medicine

Abstract

Amir-Seena Saberi-Movahed, Syed Waqar, Ahmad Salha Faculty of Medicine, St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, UKWe read the article on the relationship between narrative medicine and the positive outcomes reflected in COPD management, by Banfi et al1 with great interest. We were particularly intrigued by how the simple documentation of parallel charts could improve the patient–doctor relationship and patient adherence to treatment. It made us evaluate narrative medicine from different perspectives.Authors’ replyAntonietta Cappuccio, Maria Giulia MariniHealthcare Area, Fondazione ISTUD, Milan, ItalyWe read the letter of Saberi-Movahed et al and we are pleased that our paper1 has aroused interest in other care professionals. Although the first articles on narrative medicine and the use of parallel charts were already published in the early 2000s,2 there are few papers published on this topic and we, as a research center, are striving to give narrative research the acknowledgment and role it is worthy of.View the original paper by Banfi and colleagues.

Keywords

• Narrative medicine
• COPD
• Patient-doctor relationship
• patient adherence
• narrative practice
• parallel charts.